Nitrome Wiki:Manual of Style
The Manual of Style explains the format articles are to be written in, useful for creating new articles. It may also cover other topics such as using templates or putting images on a page, to be determined in the future. Keep in mind that this guide may not be appropriate for every written article, and that certain exceptions may apply depending on the type of articles you are writing or creating. It is asked, however, that you keep to this guide as much as possible to ensure all articles retain the same amount of consistency. General outlines for creating articles *'Bold' the first mention of the subject the article is about. *Add internallinks to display other subjects of interest while the viewer reads the article. These links can be added with two square brackets around the page name. Pagenames are case sensitive, unless it is the first letter of the title. *A page link only needs to be made once on a page. For instance, if you had created an article about Kapowski from The Glassworks, and are repeatedly mentioning the game's name, The Glassworks only needs to be linked once within the article text, and once in the preload template. *Add to pages after creating them! The most important ones to add are the game which the subject comes from and also what type of thing it is (ex. enemy, hazard, etc.). *Use bullet points when listing trivia, or other external links on pages. *'Be concise' when filling in blanks for preloads! The purpose of these templates is to give readers a quick overview of what they're reading about. Then, if they're interested to find out more, they can read the actual article. *When in doubt, it's best not to fill in the blank for a preload. Remember that certain columns don't always apply to all games. *Be short and concise when writing the "Appearance" section of an article. Don't go into excessive amounts of detail when describing the subject, just tell things such as its color and notable features about it. Vocabulary All articles are to be written using British English spelling, however, a globalised version of English vocabulary decided by the community will be used if a component is not officially named. Numbers All numbers should be typed out (e.g. "one" instead of "1") unless they fall under the following exceptions: *When stating Days and Years *When stating a Time of Day *When writing Addresses *When writing Decimals and Percentages *When writing Level numbers *When writing an amount of points *When writing the name of game with a number in it (e.g. Skywire 2) **'Notes on Usage' **Numbers in series and statistics should be consistent. (e.g. two apples, six oranges, and three bananas NOT: two apples, 6 oranges, and 3 bananas) **Write out numbers beginning sentences. (e.g. Six percent of the group failed. NOT: 6% of the group failed.) **Use a combination of figures and words for numbers when such a combination will keep your writing clear. (e.g. Unclear: The club celebrated the birthdays of 6 90-year-olds who were born in the city. ((may cause the reader to read '690' as one number.)) Clearer: The club celebrated the birthdays of six 90-year-olds who were born in the city.) Pictures Images can help describe to readers what words can't. On the other hand, when not placed properly on an article, they might make it look busy and overwhelming. For all pages, images go best in the infobox, which is the table on the right side of the article displaying basic information about what the reader is reading about. Resizing the image may be necessary if the picture is large, because it otherwise might narrow the text and make the article unpresentable. If an article requires several pictures, such as grouping together enemies, these are best put into a gallery rather than trying to match the text with a thumbnail image. This can easily be done by uploading images, and putting them between tags. An example can be found here. For the purpose of organization, users should also keep titles relevant to the images when uploading them to the wiki. The name of the image should at minimum include the game that it is from and what the image is of, separated by a space. For example, for an image of a Narwhal from Snow Drift, an appropriate image title would "Snow Drift Narwhal." Page titles The rules for naming newly created pages are as follows. If a page does not follow this outline, feel free to rename it so it follows these rules. Capitalisation All game names, character names and other proper nouns should be named with the first letter of each word capitalised. For all other nouns, capitalisation patterns should follow the ones given by Nitrome, which are usually mentioned in-game, unless text is written in block letters. In that case, it is up to the editor to decide whether Nitrome meant to capitalise the given object or not. In some cases, names of certain components are not revealed to players, so unofficial titles must be given in order to create the page. In this case, only the first letter of the title is capitalised. Example. Mud monsters instead of Mud Monsters. The name mud monsters was not specifically named by Nitrome, but rather titled by the editor. Games A game page should be named with the same link title given on Nitrome's list of games. It should not involve any punctuation unless there is a punctuation mark on the list. All other known titles can be made as redirects pointing to the given title on the site. Ex. A page on Nitrome's 100th game Nitrome Must Die should be titled as Nitrome Must Die, with Nitrome Must Die!!!! pointing as the redirect. Characters Characters should be named according to their given names within the Nitrome game. When creating the pages, a reference should be provided as to where the name is given. If no name is provided within the game, the page will be named according to what the character is (ex. penguin, yeti, hedgehog, human, etc.). Sometimes parantheses are needed if the link points to more than one game. (ex. Yeti (Snow Drift) as to not confuse with Yeti (Cold Storage)) Sometimes, a character's name will not be revealed until later, in places such as a blog post. In that case, rename the page with the new known name and provide a reference to the link claiming the official name so that other users may confirm it. Other components Like characters, a page on a certain component such as an enemy, interactive object or hazard, should be named according to the in-game name. If no name is given, the creator of the page should decide upon a name that is most appropriate to the component's description. Lists The format for naming lists is X (Y), "X" being the component of the game (ex. enemies, pickups, etc.) and "Y" being the game it comes from. Ex. Hazards (Roly Poly), etc. Use of the word 'The' The word "the" should not be used in a page title, unless it is specifically named that by Nitrome (ex. The Bucket). Titles should only be named according to their official name or what they are (ex. Hazmat Hero, not The Hazmat Hero). Page layouts *''If the tabs are taking too long to load, the links can also be accessed here:'' */Game/ */Character/ */Component/ */List/ Project:Manual of Style/Game|Game Project:Manual of Style/Character|Character Project:Manual of Style/Component|Components Project:Manual of Style/List|List